Friday, January 16, 2009

Grandma Shelley's Road Trip to Vegas

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I know this is a bit off of topic for my blog but I wanted to share in another great thing about being a grandma with a newly retired Papa! Last minute invite to go to Vegas. Sure, we have the time....

A recent road trip to Vegas was so much fun. My daughter invited my husband and I to go on a business trip with her. We were more than happy to accept. She offered free transportation in a company rental car and complimentary lodging for three nights in a very fine hotel. 

Each morning we dropped her off for a day of meetings at the Rio and my husband and I kept ourselves busy as tourists until it was time to pick her up. Some of the highlights of our trip included scoring half price show tickets, a breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet, and touring the beautiful hotels and casinos. 

Our last night was so much fun. We picked up our daughter after her meetings and we headed for the dinner buffet. We chose the buffet at the Paris Hotel since it had been voted the best in Vegas for the last 3 years. We were not disappointed. It was a beautiful restaurant and the food was delicious and plentiful!  We then hit the streets on foot to walk off our dinner and we toured the nearby hotels, casinos, and shopping. We really enjoyed the F.A.O. Shwartz Toy Store. We lost track of our time in there looking at and playing with the toys. They had a piano keyboard on the floor like they had in that Tom Hanks movie. My husband and daughter showed off their piano and coordination skills as they played some pretty impressive tunes with their feet.

One thing we really noticed in Vegas was a lot of honking of cars. There were double decker buses honking at hotel shuttles, shuttles honking at taxi's, and taxi's honking at passenger cars! It was crazy. I have never been to New York but I have always imagined the streets of NY being like that. We lost track of how many times we had been honked at for no good reason. It seems they hit their horn each time they have to hit their brakes.

We enjoyed the excitement of the city, the good food, the entertainment, and the sites but most of  all we enjoyed the time we had with our daughter. (I guess I could somehow tie this in as a grandma story since she's the mom of three of my grandsons. ) We shared in some great conversations, we had many good laughs, and we created some lasting shared memories. We enjoyed seeing her in the role of businesswomen and in her excitement for learning new things. It was also very rewarding to see how she kept a constant pulse on what was going on at home with her sweet little family. It was very clear on where her priorities lie.

This was an opportunity for me to just be me, mom, and wife. There were no phone calls home to grandkids, no postcards home,  and no time spent shopping for them.  And somehow, I still had a really great time!

Road Trip to Vegas........A+    I have a very generous and thoughtful daughter!    Thank you.


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